Author's infos

Many of the villagers said that the dragon had always been insane, feeding upon them and their livestock, burning fields in anger, and the Sacrifice being the only thing that would quell it’s wrath. But a few of the older folks, those of more wisdom and less superstition told another story. That once long before, back in their old grandfather’s days, when they were but young-lings themselves the dragon did not ask for sacrifices. That it dwelt in peace taking it’s own council and having nothing to do with the villages that surrounded it’s mountain lair.

But since that long ago time, things had changed. Whether the dragon had gone insane or was simply toying with those lesser then it, only the seer can fathom. And the bitter truth of today still stands. When the dragon lights the fires the on the mountain top, the village elders know that a sacrifice must be made. The people of the three villages, Gesper, Hammond, and Lyre come together and lots are cast upon all unmarried females. Needless to say these are busy weeks indeed for the clerics of all villages as young maidens rush to marry able bodied boys and hence perhaps save their own lives. For to be unmarried and without children, virgin or no, one is still entered into the lots, with only widows and old maids excluded.

When a month had passed, the lots were drawn in the center gardens of Gesper. It was upon that day that Hypaelia, daughter of the good farmer Mattor, was shown her own death when her name was drawn forth on a tile. Her family said tearful goodbyes, her mother fainting in despair, and she was sundered from them, never to see them again in this world. The council guards put her into the cage of doom and that afternoon she was wheeled before the entrance to the ancient mountain lair. There they left her for the dragon to do with her what it would.

The cage was made of wood and quite sturdy, and had been repaired many times, once being completely rebuilt when the dragon destroyed it in it’s haste to get at the contents of the cage. The bodies of the victims were never found, nor traces of blood and death, so the cage was removed from the mountain once it’s purpose was fulfilled and carpenters repaired it until the next time the fires of the mountain burned.

Hypaelia fainted dead away when the dragon emerged from its lair. So she never saw the large knuckled claw that cast a spell that rent the front of the cage door completely off. Her own body rising from magic out of the cage and lightly settling into the beasts hand. She was then whisked away into the beasts lair. The mountain shook and rocks crumbled. The cold damp night stood as the only witness of the monster.

She awoke some time later, waking from a dream that to her was a nightmare. But then she never had expected to ever wake again. As her eyes adjusted to the glowing light, the first thing she noticed was the heat. It was very hot here inside the mountain itself, where she assumed she was now. And she was inside another cage of some kind, that even though a prison, was magnificently carved of iron with scrolling vines and tiny dragons intermingled up and down it’s impregnable bars. A bench, a bed, and a hole in the floor covered by a circle of wood and an iron ring served as latrine. The quarters were far from spartan however as one must imagine with a fine carpet on the floor and the bed covered in sheets of silk and embroidery.

It was then she noticed that she herself was unclothed. Her nakedness scared her in this place. She was trapped and alone, but somehow also feeling like something that is on display. Hastily, she pulled the silk sheet from the bed and covered herself as best she could. Time passed slowly, and she could do little but look about her at the misty darkness that surrounded her prison.

‘Good eve’, came the sound of a childlike voice out of the darkness, that startled her so much so that she screamed in terror. She pulled the sheets about her and peering into the darkness found that her eyes could just make out the small shape of a woman.

‘Uh, hello? Who is there?!’, she said her voice rattling with fear.

The figure moved closer to the cage and she could see now that it was indeed a woman. Her hair of the finest golden curls falling about her face and shoulders in long ringlets, her eyes of the brightest blue, even if demurely downcast. She opened a small wooden box and light streamed from it. Hypaelia could then see that she was clothed in a blue dress richly sewn. She pulled from the box a globe of light, a crystal ball about the size of a melon. Lifting the globe with her hands and laying the box aside she slipped it between the bars. Next as Hypaelia watched she took a small wooden stand from the box and lay that between the bars beside the ball.

‘This is for you. So you can see. I am sorry I had forgotten it when I dressed your ‘quarters’. I will be returning soon with your meal. My name is Suzanne. In the old tongue I was told that it means trustworthy.’ The ball rolled onto the carpet and its light shown around the cell. Color came to the cage and Hypaelia did notice that the cage was not so drab as the dull light had made her think. Pillows on the floor around the edge of the cage, a wash basin in the far corner she had not even noticed before. Then she noticed the light crackling sound that came from the ball and she stared at it, knowing with absolute certainty that it was a magical thing. She was lost for a moment in her own thoughts. She looked up to speak to Suzanne and then noticed that she was no longer there.

‘Suzanne?!’, she cried into the darkness hearing her own voice echo into the vast chamber she suddenly realized she was in.

Out of the darkness, she heard, ‘My lady, rest and sleep, I will return soon’, in such a light whisper that she was unsure if she heard the voice in her head or with her ears; then silence.

She reach down and lifted the ball, laying it over her hands and finding that it was cold to the touch, about the only thing that was cold within this stifling heat. She placed it on the bench in the wooden stand. Climbing back into the bed she hid under the sheets and cried and cried until sleep found her at last.

Chapter Two
Drago Draconus

As Suzanne walked in the extremely dim light her eyes saw everything in front of her. Her once demure eyes opened with clear purpose and her feet moved across the hall even though she made no more then a soft shuffle upon the flag stones. Her stride quickened and she left the hall and entered a series of long passageways ending in a glowing red room with a wall of flames at the opposite doorway. She walked to the flames without hesitation and then through them. The flames licked about her as if trying to find something to feed on, to consume. But they found no hold and then she was through them.

The lair were very different on this side of the wall of fire. And Suzanne was soon different also as her human form stepped into the vast mountain cavern and in a burst of magical energy she merged into the shape of a huge golden dragon. The blue eyes of the beast shone, and yet had not changed as the lids blinked in the light of the chamber, it’s wings lifted and it hurled itself into the air.

Touching down lightly on the cliff ledge, the dragon transformed and Suzanne stood there again. She entered her personal chambers and the room of globes.

She had lied about forgetting the globe. Their special type of magic worked best when the globe was accepted as a gift. She moved towards the globes which were much larger then the one she had given the newly arrived girl, and were clear as the crystal they were made of. She went over to one of them and peered within. Clearly she could see a form huddled on the bed under the covers. No sound issued from the globe, so the dragon in human form could not hear the sobbing of her prisoner.

She moved to the next globe and saw a man strapped to the bars of his cell. His room was scarce, with no bed, just a small bench with the globe from which she spied on him from her lair. He was naked from head to toe and the sweat dripped off his long limbs. His penis lay limp and yet the sweat dripping off his chest was slowly dripping to the floor from his flacid member.

He seemed to be recovering from his wounds nicely and would probably wake in the next day or so. The healing potion she had forced down his unconscious throat had done it’s work, but had the side affect of rendering the patient asleep for many days while it’s magic coursed through their veins.

She was curious about this one. It had been awhile since a knight had challenged her in her own lair, and to single combat no less. If it had been a large group of knights, which had been the case in the past, she would have just rained fire on them from the skies and been done with it. The silly fools. She wondered if this man was like to them. But already she knew he was different, fair and noble and if very stupid, extremely brave. Which was why she had spared him after only breaking his legs and eating his horse. The horse had died when she had crushed it beneath him in battle.

She had taken the splints off just the day before and felt the bones beneath his flesh making sure they were mended. She had been aroused by the feel of him. Yes, it had been along while since she had captured a knight. She sighed to herself, yes this one could be a lot of fun. She licked her lips in anticipation, her eyes shining.

She turned to another globe nearby and saw a petite naked woman laying on her bed as if asleep. A small hand written card in front of the globe read, ‘Penina’, the girl’s name. Penina had been with her for nearly a year now. It had taken her several months for her to seduce the virginal girl, but now they were frequent lovers. In fact she wondered sometimes if Penina didn’t guess the truth. These days she seemed to flaunt her sexuality and give her much to watch when she spied on her. Even now she stirred as if she had been sleeping and waiting for her. She opened her eyes a crack and slowly moved her hands across her naked form. One hand came to rest upon her belly, the other cupping her breast lightly and then grazing the nipple. Suzanne watched her back arch and even though she could hear nothing through the visions in the glass, she could see her mouth open and knew that she had let a soft moan escape her. Suzanne felt the tingling between her own legs at the sight of her. Her nipples now hard and extended, Penina continued to caress them. Her other hand sliding down her belly and over her soft brown pubic hair. The fingers slipped lower and touched her sex ever so gently. Her mouth opened again and Suzanne watched fascinated.

‘Hmmm’, she thought. ‘I will have to work on the knight to take her virginity from her. Penina is such a lovely girl and I find myself feeling for her. She certainly pleases me the most of my captives and I would never harm her. She has earned her freedom long before this. I will have to keep her at least another year though. I would not give up so quickly on such fun.’

This meant that in another year Penina would wake up one morning near a campfire, with a saddled horse and a bag of gold. Usually somewhere on the other side of the world. It would be impolite to have a captive return to their village and expose her as a dragon that ate her maidens in other ways. It would spoil all her fun and make her work that much harder.

She focused again on Penina in the globe and licked her lips. She purred like a cat. Penina was now on all fours and sliding two fingers in and out of her vagina. The glistening lips, red and extended, the muscles under her legs tightening as she thrust her fingers in and out of her sex, faster and harder. Her long brown hair was thrown back over her shoulders and laying on her back. Her other hand, could not be seen, but Suzanne fantasized that she was pinching her rose colored nipples with it.

The wetness beneath Suzannes legs had grown. Slowly her hand grazed against the cloth of her dress and she felt her hard nipple beneath it. Her eyes glazed over for a second in delight.

‘I think it is time for Penina’s lunch.’, she said out loud to no one in particular.